The Sakawa Boys and Computer Fraud

The shadowy alleys of the internet bear witness to the prevalence of computer fraud, where thousands of people fall victim every day through ignorance, indifference, and carelessness. Behind a good portion of these scams lies a Ghanaian subculture that sees this way of making money at others' expense as a viable alternative to escape the poverty to which they seem predestined. The Sakawa Boys and the computer fraud they carry out tell a vivid story about the criminal communion between informatics, religion, fashion, and the poverty of the world's forgotten.

The sun sets over Accra, and in the suburbs the windows of cybercafés flash all night long. A closer look at the scene shows that it's not Counter-Strike being played there, but rather screens glow over the faces of young people in an activity far from playful. Using the tools the internet gives them and the power of high-speed access, some young Ghanaians earn their bread by writing letters, cutting up other people's photos in Paint, and creating all kinds of interaction with the West to scam the unwary with meticulously crafted tricks.

The excuse can be anything, from online marketplaces for computer gear using credit card numbers unknowingly lent by the victims, to dating sites where a young Ghanaian man will pose as a beautiful woman needing money to travel and meet her Western online sweetheart. There are also the inevitable business proposals from gurus of economic success who, not at all suspiciously, ask for money so the adventurer can get in on the business.

The money arrives after arduous preparation, multiple attempts, and a high level of persuasion with personalized follow-up: nothing easy, though much more accessible now with the internet and computers than before the 90s, when it was done by hand through mailed letters. Until recently a quick source of unexpected wealth, hunting the distracted is now not so easy thanks to the exposure these activities have received. This is where the scammers of Ghana distinguish themselves from their Nigerian mentors: the Sakawa boys add a new term to their equation to find more victims and be more effective: witchcraft.

Taking advantage of the gullibility of some people, letters from Nigeria and Ghana reached homes promising unmissable deals for adventurers who made a minimal initial investment to carry out paperwork and reports for profit. Those letters that arrived in mailboxes carried a religious blessing from the 'jujus' or 'mallams,' the witch doctors of the African religion Akhan, who express the neutrality of spirits before the actions of their faithful. The end is not judged; what matters are the offerings and rituals performed. These range from sleeping in a sarcophagus for a week to bringing clothes or giving cash to the witch doctor.

In return, a bag of envelopes ready for the postal service is blessed so it has more effect on its victims. Today the paper envelopes have turned into pendrives with email addresses, and the faithful/clients are increasingly numerous given the accessibility and comparative comfort of the internet. Religion, informatics, and crime: a perfect business for all parties. Less so for the Christian and Muslim priests of the region, who watch the money go to the juju clergymen.

To try to understand the success of this way of making a living, one must review Ghana's recent history, a country that became independent in 1957 and since then has been one of the democracies held up as exemplary by the African Union. While the surrounding countries face high-conflict social situations with widely known levels of poverty and underdevelopment, Ghana combines dirt roads with European-quality fiber optic, standing out from the place assigned to it by world powers, the economic system, and its own dictatorial past. Through foreign investment and taking advantage of its gold mines, cocoa exports, and newly discovered oil wells, Ghana shows growing development and political stability is finally a reality.

But what appears on paper is not necessarily what you see on the streets, because as one of the protagonists of the documentary we present says, 'young people can't find work because the jobs simply aren't there.' With a pragmatic view on the topic, the young people involved in Sakawa express their need to survive in a context where work is just another shortcoming, so when a tool like high-quality internet arrives thanks to treaties with England and donated computers from all over the world, the opportunity to earn money that had eluded them presented itself as not to be missed.

The Sakawa phenomenon has gradually become a subculture that aesthetically mimics, with its cultural distances on the surface, the gangsta rappers of New York and California in the 90s. Cars, women, expensive clothes, parties, and stacks of money falling in slow motion amid their laughter of 'we beat the system'—an image many young Ghanaians between 17 and 25 see as a path to victory that their own country and the global economic system don't provide them. It's not a fast, successful path, but it is an alternative to consider when the situation becomes desperate. The Sakawa fashion arises alongside music groups and films that show, though considerably fictionalized, the life of the the Sakawa Boys.

Highly popular, the activity is pursued by the Ghanaian government and by Western sites, especially from the United Kingdom and the US. This also brings with it bans on IP addresses originating from the country, which ends up homogenizing all Ghanaians as presumed virtual criminals. The editor believes this measure is controversial, because in a context where internet freedom and civilian populations are being discussed, it is important not to fall into the generalization that tarnishes the reputation of countries because of the actions of a tiny fraction of their inhabitants. That is, not to fall into the prejudice that leads to xenophobia, which spreads vague images of a particular society or country, associating it with crime, as has been done with Muslim culture and Middle Eastern countries. Reflecting on the reasons behind this seems like a good strategy to coexist with reality and better analyze events that are foreign to us in culture and context.

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